Was covered as part of the original Sicario thread. However, now that the first trailer has dropped, it might as well get its own. Loved the first one. Not sure but curious how the sequel will hold up without Villeneuve or Deakins involved.
I can’t say that this looks as…nuanced…as Sicario, but I do like Brolin and Del Toro, so I will probably see it.
I try very hard not to get negative about a thing before I see it for myself. I’m struggling with this. I watched the trailer, and…
I hold the original in such high regard. I want this to just not be related to it. I don’t want to think about what Emily Blunt or Daniel Kaluuya are doing while this is going on. I think about del Toro’s character’s restrained fury in the first, how potent it made him, and then I compare it to the shot of him wild eyed going guns blazing on a helpless slug-man in the streets, and…
I don’t want to hate it. But I also don’t want a daffy action movie playing in the nihilistic sandbox Villeneuve gave us.
I’m not familiar with the new director, but even Orson Welles would have trouble with it, as the story was played to fruition in the prequel.
Maybe they should turn it into a buddy comedy. Sort of like Lethal Weapon, except it’s in Mexico and Danny Glover kills children.
I agree, Sicario was about an experience, not a set of action sequences, and that elevated it. The potential for a cash-in is so great here that any cynic would believe it is going to go wrong.
I guess it’s gone to a lesser known director for that reason.
So, Sheridan can write some good dialogue. I think the story is less than stellar. I’m think it telegraphs something very important which was very disappointing.
I liked Benicio and Brolin and I was quite impressed with Moner. She didn’t have a lot to do, but I thought she was quite expressive.
The first movie would have been in my top three the year it was released and the guys had a great podcast on it. This movie will not be in my top ten this year.
I thought Soldado was okay but a few steps below Sicario; people point out that Graver and Alejandro are more “humane” this time, but it’s kind of the point of Sicario that they aren’t, and that’s why they survive and are for that dark world. I suppose if Sicario takes one to the very edge, Soldado in a few ways brings you back. Does it really need to do that? Then again, it may be too hard to sell the movie otherwise if you follow the plot.
While it isn’t Deakins’ stellar DP work, the film does look good if not a little muted, and tries to create its own spin on it, especially with some moderate-length car interior stuff. And while the action sequences are generally good, some of them feel pointless; in Sicario, action is a plot device. In Soldado, it’s used to entertain and shock and occasionally goes over the top. For the convoy sequence, there’s the added confusion of exactly why it’s happening to begin with–something that’s not really ever explained.
I also don’t like how they went about explaining the plot at the beginning. It’s too expositional. In Sicario, the discovery of the bodies leads to a meeting with federal and other agents that brings Emily Blunt into the fold, kinda. In Soldado, there’s all this extra terrorist attack stuff, Matthew Modine being all mad on TV, torture in Somalia, blah blah. They could have left all of that out. Go straight from the border sequence to Graver going to Washington. Explain how the cartels are importing terrorists into the country. All that extra stuff is needless justification that’s supposed to paint a wider picture–but is it really necessary?
— Alan
The more I think about this movie, the more I am seeing connective tissue with Clear and Present Danger.
It’s very Clear and Present Danger-ish. Except it doesn’t feature a Harrison Ford who refuses to use a gun.
— Alan
Unsatisfactory ending unless there is a 3rd. And no Emily blunt-like character? BUT – I admit I still enjoyed it. Just saw it last night and had waited. Loved Sicario.
I finally watched it on retail. I thought this is absolutely not a worthy sequel. Sicario at times is very intense without any shooting, like when they thought they were being followed in Mexico, but in the end nothing happened. The border shootout of course is intense. The brewing conflict between Emily Blunt’s FBI and the black op guys (el soldado y el sicario) is also intense.
And then the sequel has none of that intensity. It was an evolution of the characters but that’s about it. The criticism I heard against Sicario is that those two guys are ultra macho and lacked humanity, and so they showed how they gained their humanity back. And that’s it. The structure also is a bit of a cut-and-paste job of Sicario, with the kid playing the cop role. Taylor Sheridan IMO wrote two great scripts recently in Wind River and of course Sicario, but this isn’t in the same league as those two.
It wasn’t terrible but without an Emily blunt type character it just… seemed overly political, I just watched it on a stream as well. I loved the first one.
Yeah, I was expecting more as the first one had a lot of really good layers to it. This seemed more like a fairly simple action/suspense-thriller film in the end without much depth.
If there is a 3, I suspect the character played by Elijah Rodriguez will be back as Del Toro’s new protoge to make it all really silly.